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    A Prayer for the Dying
    A Prayer for the Dying
    A Prayer for the Dying
    Audiobook6 hours

    A Prayer for the Dying

    Written by Jack Higgins

    Narrated by Michael Page

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    An ex-IRA soldier must save a priest targeted for elimination to gain absolution for his violent past.

    Everyone has demons to overcome, but Martin Fallon has more than most. A ruthless hitman and executioner for the IRA, Fallon is haunted by a mistake that led to the explosion of a school bus full of children. When he's threatened by the sadistic Meehan brothers, Fallon must agree to one last hit. But this time there's a witness: a priest named Father De Costa. And when everyone else wants the Father dead, Fallon is determined to protect him, to earn redemption from his life of crime and forgiveness for the blood on his hands.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 15, 2011
    ISBN9781441845993
    Author

    Jack Higgins

    Since The Eagle Has Landed—one of the biggest-selling thrillers of all time—every novel Jack Higgins has written has become an international bestseller. He has had simultaneous number-one bestsellers in hardcover and paperback, and many of his books have been made into successful movies, including The Eagle Has Landed, To Catch a King, On Dangerous Ground, Eye of the Storm, and Thunder Point. He has degrees in sociology, social psychology, and economics from the University of London, and a doctorate in media from Leeds Metropolitan University. A fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an expert scuba diver and marksman, Higgins lives in Jersey on the Channel Islands.

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    Reviews for A Prayer for the Dying

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Jack Higgins was, in the late sixties and early seventies, a journeyman writer of paperback-original thrillers about hard men in dangerous situations. He learned his craft in these books, and the later ones -- including "A Prayer for the Dying," which first appeared in 1973 -- are as good as anything he ever wrote. "Prayer" exemplifies everything that's good about them. It's a taut, lean story in which three major characters (ex-IRA gunman Martin Fallon, crime boss "Dandy Jack" Meehan, and decidedly unorthodox priest Father Michael da Costa) carom off one another in the grimy streets of an unnamed city in northern England. The action is exciting without straining credulity (much), the motives (including a seemingly inexplicable choice by Fallon that sets the three on a collision course) are plausible, and the three main characters are interestingly complicated. Religion, specifically Catholicism, is not simply a plot device here. The characters who are devout Catholics not only act like it but -- a considerably tougher thing to achieve, especially in a plot-driven thriller -- *think* like it.In the end, this is just a sub-200-page paperback thriller: An example of a type of writing that, for better or worse, is all but extinct today. It is, however, a finely crafted one -- and fine craftsmanship, even in the service of modest goals, is a thing worthy of appreciation.
    • 4/5
      Typical Higgins quality story. Maybe not as good as some of his more well known books but still engaging. Reader is phenomenal.
    • 5/5
      First of all you have to ask yourself what you would like from an action book? Whatever you decide, I'm fairly confident you can find in A Prayer for the Dying. The book starts off with the main character (Martin Fallon) trying to escape the country to make a new start in Australia. We discover that he was IRA but left the cause after a mistimed bomb killed a number of schoolchildren. This results him becoming a wanted man by everyone, including his previous employers.... He has been promised a new passport and spending cash to help him on his way, but when Fallon turns up to collect he is told the only way to get what he wants is complete one last execution. Reluctantly he agrees.....What follows is a page turning ride that involves all of Higgins trademarks. We are introduced to commando priests, thugs, grudge holding detectives and, of course, shooting and kneecappings galore. Higgins has always been a master of creating great villains, but even he has surpassed himself with the extra creepy Meehan Brothers. Fallon is a methodical killer, with every aspect of the kill worked out so nothing is left to chance. However, there is an unexpected twist to the plot when there is a witness to his kill. He is soon forced to re-examine his life and where his loyaltys are placed.. with devastating results.This book has to be the ultimate introduction to Higgins, with its mixture of politics, religion and death it really doesn't let up the pace.